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Chile
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Thursday continued.....
Uneventful flight to Santiago...very cramped conditions on Lan Chile although I don't think it's any worse than any other airline. Very spasmodic sleep consequently we arrived in Santiago feeling very ordinary. Managed to get through customs very quickly..the longest time was taken hiring the car. We headed straight up to Valporaiso. This is a very quaint bohemian sort of town....goes straight up the mountain, with very thin narrow streets, with no clear signage and many of them one way. The town is heritage listed although most of it looks like shanty town held together with corrugated iron. I had the pleasure of doing most of the driving while Malcolm navigated. It was OK driving on the highway but got a bit dicky when we arrived in Valpo at peak traffic time and couldn't find the street with our hotel. Eventually went to a youth hostel where the owner pointed us in the direction of a really nice B&B called the Harrington run by two French people, Oliver and Veronique. They spent a year renovating the place, scraping all the white paint of all the doors, windows and staircase The B&B is very beautifully appointed with all natural timber and high ceilings,. Went out to eat 'real' Chilean food although I think what we had seemed to be a bit ordinary...the meat was tough, but risotto was nice and tasty. Really tired, managed to get to bed by 10pm, til we were awaken by what sounded like a huge party outside in the street...people laughing and shouting. Thought we were in a nice quite street but I think there were a lot of hospadjes around with back packers and you know how they like to party.
Fri 8th
Watched a little of the opening of the Olympics then had to take off...drove through Vina del Mar then Con Con . Interesting drive along the coast, saw the seals sunning themselves on the rocks, then we headed straight up Route 5 ..the PanAmericana...the road goes straight as the eye can see. From Santiago to La Serena is a dual carriageway which goes for miles and miles and miles. Arrived in La Serena in the late afternoon where we took the car to Budget because the there seemed to be a bit of wobble in the tyres, did a once around the local shopping centre til it was fixed then came the fun part of once again of looking for a hotel in the dark. We drove around and around the one way streets looking for a hotel eventually found one that maybe was one step up from a backpackers, not there is anything wrong with a back packers. It was all 3 of us together in one room with a private bathroom the hostel is called La Soberania. By this stage we were just glad to have a roof over our heads so we took it. Much to our dismay we had at best lukewarm showers but at least the bed was really comfortable. Did a walk downtown looking for a place to eat but all the places we saw served only sandwiches and hamburgers so we thought we would go to a Chinese restaurant, well what a mistake that was...if it were in Australia it wouldn't last too long. After a really good night sleep and perhaps the fact that we have gotten over our jet lag we managed to leave about 10am...so much for an early start.
Saturday 9th
Depart La Serena ...no more dual carriageway, this is where the highway becomes single lane each way. Between La Serena and Caldera there isn't really very much. We stopped at Vallenar and had a picnic lunch along the 'rivers' edge, well it wasn't really much of a river but for Chile any bit of water constitutes a river. Had a quick stop in Copiapo but decided that we would keep on going as far as Caldera which was a really nice quiet sea side resort. Found out that it was only quiet because it was winter time. In summer it's really pumping. Stayed at Hosteria Puerta del Sol which has quaint little A frames but there was nothing very quaint about it when I jumped in the shower to immediately get cold water. Come to think of it....we probably had the worst nights sleep so far...hard sheets, low pillows that gave us both sore necks...anybody know a good chiropractor???? The bar across the road had thumping music going til 3am, but the food was good and Malcolm got his fill of pisco sours and also Malcolm was given a whole lot of music which I was able to burn to CD so we had music as we drove along.. Not to mention that Pablo was a whiz on the computer and was able to get my computer going so I couldn't complain that the music was going all night. After a 'no' sleep night we had breakfast then hit the road again.
Sunday10th
Filled the car and checked the tyres and realized that we had been driving along on tyres with a pressure of only 16 and also had to top up brake fluid. From Caldera we drove along the coast for a bit then headed inland. This must be the most boring bit of road in Chile. It's flat, flat, flat and there is nothing of interest to see. A huge industrial hammer mill the largest Malcolm has ever seen grinding up stones....a bit like a cement mixer...but as with everything in Chile...humungous. We decided that we would bypass Antofogasta and drive an extra hour straight to Calama. This way we could spend more time in San Pedro de Atacama. The roads were mostly dirty, dusty and dry and we just followed the road for miles and miles seeing eerie deserted nitrate towns easily appreciated from a car window.
At Calama we stayed at ...... expensive town because most of the town is funded by the mines. Dinner wasn't anything to write home about but the continental breakfast was good. Made myself an extra roll to go ...little snacks along the way. Next morning we drove out of town via Chuquicamata. Have been told it employs 15000 workers per shift and they run 3 shifts per day. The workers all have fantastic pays and conditions...since early 1990s when the unions took control and organized miners' rights.
Monday 11
The next major long haul was to San Pedro de Atacama. This was a drive with big views up and up and up the mountain range. Malcolm and Jackie managed to sleep their way through this delightful landscape. The town has population of only about 5000 inhabitants the rest of this bustling little village is made up with tourists and being summer in Europe, San Pedro abounds with a lot of Europeans.
Since we had been warned that the some of the accommodation could be a little rustic eg no hot water at night, no heating and since we had Malcolm's mum with us we decided to go a little more up market and stay at Hotel Kimal. We ended up paying $150 per night for the privilege of having heating, hot water and a buffet breakfast. It was quite an oasis in an area of dust and sand with its own swimming pool and spa. All of the buildings in San Pedro are made of mud bricks and mud/straw roofs and the roads were just dust and dirt. Since it doesn't rain here there isn't a problem. I can imagine these buildings on the GC...one huge downpour ...one big mud bath!
Today was also the day to get all our washing done...1200 chilean peso per kg...this is where you wish you had taken quick dry gear instead of jeans....ended up costing us about $25. Hand it in by lunchtime and it's all washed and folded by 9pm.
Tour operators abound along the main drag and all are touting the same tours. The trick was to find a tour that was conducted in English. The one that we had been recommended was full so then we just took pot luck with Desert Adventure. With no rest for the wicked we took our first tour that afternoon. It was the Moon Valley tour which included 'Cordillera de la sal', 'Valle de la muerte', 'las tres marias' and salt dunes and the big dune in the central area of the moon valley. After a long climb up a sand dune we walked along a ridge to view the sunsetting over Licancabur. I did think we were going to see the moon rise directly over the volcano but apparently this only happens once a year and this wasn't the time. This was our first desert experience...the wind was blowing a gale and I can tell you there was no need for an exfoliator...this was a natural exfoliator. We ended up with sand everywhere. The rocks are not as you would expect. They look like they would crumble away but in fact they are really hard and you can't crumble with your fingers or even stamp on them. In one place, if you stand still you can hear the mountain, which consists totally of salt, crack and creak....you can even imagine yourself hearing icebergs calve. Not to waste a minute, we returned from the Moon Valley tour at 7pm, rushed off to have a quick dinner at Café Adobe which exuded charm with its open fire. Next on the agenda was an 'Observatory' tour at 10pm run by a Frenchman called .... He made looking at the stars really interesting and had telescopes set up on all different sorts of things. Managed to take photos of the moon and Jupiter. At the end of this tour and after having driven all day I was well and truly ready for bed.
Tuesday 12
Up early next morning to take an all day Atacama salt lake and high plateau lagoons tour. We visited Toconao village, Jere Valley, National Park 'Los Flamencos' (Chaxas Lagoon) Socaire village and Miscant and Miniques lagoons. The tour was led by Danielo who was a wealth of information and made the whole region come to life. The salt lakes were not flat and white as we imagined, but more like big fields that had all been ploughed up. We took a walk on the salt lake and it was interesting to note that there was quite a bit of water underfoot and little lakes at 36% salt concentration that support all sorts of marine and plant life. It wasn't as dry as it appeared. Next up was seeing the pink flamingos. I think they knew they had an audience so did their little dance. The young flamingos up to a year old are white. The pink colour comes from the diet. Amongst all this desert and at 4000m you don't think you would find freshwater lakes but this where we saw Miscant and Miniques lagoons.
We met up a couple of Brazilians Mariela and Tania. We were drawn to them particularly as they spoke English. Mariela works for an American company and Tania works for the Australian Trade Commission and had only just returned from OZ.
Wednesday 13th
Being on holidays we lost track of days and dates and thinking that we had only one more day before we flew to Lima we took off early in the morning to Iquique. This was another drive through yet more desert and as you approach the town this is where it gets interesting. Iquique is founded at the base of huge mountain range and a huge sand dune and if you look down as you descend it's just a sheer drop off! As the town is bound by the ocean and the high mountains it has a layer of fog over it and by the time we got there it was starting to get dark, combine that with fog and the town didn't look like much. Even though it came recommended as a really nice place we were beginning to have doubts as to why we came.
Once again it was a matter of looking for a hotel in the dark. We eventually found a hotel called Hotel Barras Arana.
Thursday 14
Spent the morning walking around the town. They have a street lined with Georgian houses and a lovely museum lined where we met Ricardo who explained the history of the town and the things to see. He was the head of the Education dept -EFL which happened to be located in the same building as the museum. A lot of the town is built with timber that was sent as ballast in the boats from America . We drove to Arica that afternoon.
We decided that as it was the next day that we had to return the car that we should look for the Budget location so that we knew where we had to go. As it turned out it was just as well that we made this decision because it took us an hour to find where they were located. We even took a taxi to get us there but as it turned out they had relocated so it didn't matter where the taxi took us...it was never going to be the correct place. It took us an hour to twig to the fact that we had an incorrect address. We eventually found it only to be told that the next day was a public holiday and that if we hadn't dropped in today, nobody would have been there tomorrow to take the car...another crisis avoided!
We were recommended to stay at Hotel Savona which was supposed to be OK...by this stage the criteria for an OK hotel was, hot water 24/7, good mattresses and a good pillow.
We realized people have a different ideas of hot water. In most places hot water consisted of turning on the hot water tap and getting anywhere from lukewarm to scalding hot and that's without even using the cold water tap. Even so it had a good location and we were able to take a stroll down town to a lovely pedestrian mall. After walking up and down we finally found a little place to dine... restaurants passed muster if they had fresh natural fruit juice on the menu.
Friday 15th
Had the morning in Arica. Took a drive out the archeological museum but as most things in Chile, it didn't open til 10am so thought we would take a drive along the beaches. Apparently this town is known for its surfing. The people were keen, all dressed in wetsuits there quite a few of them out surfing. Thought I would take the morning to update blog. It's been almost 2 weeks since we left OZ and I know you think that I haven't written anything but I have been slowly adding to it....just haven't gotten around to adding it to the blog site. Also I am finding that we are doing so much in a day that I am having trouble remembering what we have done. Four days later and I am having , trouble remembering what hotel we stayed at , what it was like, where we ate, what we did....you know...all the important things. Guess if it was what shops we shopped at, then I wouldn't have any problems. Had a quick lunch in town as we were heading over the border today to catch the plane to Lima. Took a taxi from Arica across the border to Tacna. The taxi drivers are very helpful with getting you through the border checkpoints...first you have to go through the checkpoint to depart Chile, then through the checkpoint to arrive in Peru.
WOW...what a difference we noticed coming into Tacna. Somebody( I think it was LP) said it was just a dusty little border town but after having driven from Santiago to Arica this dusty little border town was like a breath of fresh air. First thing we noticed as we came into town was green grass, the flowers and all the palm trees.
With that all done we found we had about 6 hours to kill before we flew out. The airport isn't very far from town but as there is only one flight out of Tacna there are no taxis at the airport so we had to take our Chilean taxi into town after negotiating to leave our baggage at the airport. They weren't totally happy about doing it because there are no facilities for left baggage but did it nevertheless.
Tacna was really busy as it was public holiday in Arica and all the Chileans go across the border to go shopping. One of the Chilean locals said it wasn't very good because all the money from Arica is going across the border and making Tacna rich.
Tacna reminded of being in China. I don't know whether all the Chileans and Peruvians have bad eyesight or what but there seemed to be optical dispensers in every second shop. The glasses were cheap and you could get them done in 2 hours. After wandering the streets for a couple of hours we took a taxi back to the airport and reclaimed our luggage before the hordes arrived to book in.
Arrived in Lima at 1030pm, no taxi as ordered, hassled by taxi touts as soon as we stepped out of the airport, light rain mist falling...bit of a tense moment trying to find a taxi to take us to our hotel. Finally managed to get to our hotel, we were so glad to arrive that I think we ended being over generous with our taxi tip. All in all I think we managed to be in bed by 12.
Where I stayed:
Harrington
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